(By Buzz Knight) You can feel the energy growing as the masses are descending to CES.
We are still in press conference mode with a number of offsite hotels/Mandalay Bay and Aria serving as base camp for the operation.
I started the day meeting up for breakfast with two of my personal favorites Tony Garcia and Sheri Lynch. Tony operates Now Media and is co-founder of The Bob and Sheri Radio Show and Sheri is the one and only Sheri.
Great connecting in person sharing some laughs and hearing about how Sheri is trailblazing her path to independent content creation on her own terms. Great theme for CES, an individual or entity doing it their way with passion and excellence. Sheri is such an amazing talent!
Next we were off to Mandalay Bay for a press conference launching a new product IdolEyes with another individual who carved her own path on her terms. The lovely Paul Abdul (pictured with Buzz here).
IdolEyes are Smart Audio Glasses fulfilling Paula’s wish to combine Fashion and Technology.
Great quote out of the press conference: “The Future of Audio is Visual” which could be a nice takeaway goal for the business of radio. Positioning the medium as audio first but also touching other delivery systems is something that should be more than an afterthought. So nice meeting someone who is such a part of our culture and our history.
Next we were off to Mandalay for a Power Session featuring an interesting new product from a Canadian company called Advanced Symbolics. Erin Kelly is the CEO and she presented her product “Ask Polly.” Advanced Symbolics is an AI company and “Ask Polly” is designed to give Journalists and Consultants representative sample research at their fingertips in minutes by mining social media and the prevailing sentiment on a topic.
For example: If you are a journalist writing about the current climate of first time homebuyers? Ask Polly. The datapoints and statistical reliability appear to be significant and easy for a first time user of the product to utilize with the platform. They are planning a March 2023 launch and the possibilities for their product seem huge.
CES is always great to observe from a formal session standpoint as well. I bounced over to The Aria for one entitled “The Disruption: Media, Platforms and Advertising.”
The focus of the panelists was Audio-Centric and there was a ton of advocacy for audio as a medium, which is always great to hear. Gayle Troberman is the CMO from iheartMedia and she made an important comment that is worth highlighting about the preponderance of data today. “Many of us tend to be in a marketing bubble. We have lost touch with real America. We need to sometimes put the data aside and talk to real consumers.”
Great truth in that comment for sure.
Tomorrow we’ll be taking a walk on the show floor to jar our senses and entice our curiosity.
